


Alternative Universe

by AniZH



Category: Victorious (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:14:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25384372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AniZH/pseuds/AniZH
Summary: Jade takes Tori’s spot in the Platinum Music Awards. How can she? Tori almost believed them to be friends but now she just wants Jade to go away. She wants her to never have existed. And what if Jade truly never did?
Relationships: Beck Oliver/Jade West
Comments: 5
Kudos: 97





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to this fic that’s going to have about four chapters. I will either upload once or twice a week; I still have to see what I can manage.  
> Buuuut I finally finished all my exams so I should have a bit more time – but I’m still working and I’m now on the search for a new job at the same time. Life’s just never not busy, huh?  
> Please, enjoy. :)

Why shouldn’t she kiss Beck? Why shouldn’t she just start to date him? Everyone knows there’s something there. There’s something between them. Why shouldn’t they see where it’s going?  
Yes, there’s Jade. But why should she care about her? Jade just stole her big performance at the Platinum Music Awards. She didn’t even think twice about it.  
No, she shouldn’t kiss Beck out of spite, but she’s so damn angry with Jade and that’s all she can think about at the moment.  
Her friends all get it. They don’t badmouth Jade, but they also don’t protest when Tori does.  
She just now complained to Robbie about it. It’s after school but she doesn’t feel like going home. Because she must face her parents there. She already texted them that she lost her job, but she doesn’t want to talk to them at the moment. They’re always so positive and telling her that it’ll get better. She can’t hear that right now. She just wants to complain. That’s all.  
Robbie’s staying with her. She heard her friends talk about who should stay with her at which time. They’re apparently keen on making sure she isn’t alone at the moment. She loves them for it. Because they also just listen and let her vent.  
They are sitting on the floor in a hallway. There are still a few after school activities going on, but neither she nor Robbie have to be anywhere. She vented a whole lot and is exhausted now.  
She hasn’t cried since it has happened, but she feels like at some point, tears will come. For now, she almost feels like she wants to sleep and not wake up for a long time.  
“How can you be friends with her?” Tori finally asks miserably.  
Because Robbie is friends with Jade, isn’t he? Or is he just too scared to say he doesn’t want to spend time with her? Tori can’t imagine. She actually feels like Robbie... likes Jade in a way. As do Cat, Andre and, well, Beck of course, even after their breakup. She doesn’t get it at all. How? How can any one of them see any good in her?  
And yes, she also started to get along with Jade. She maybe would’ve called her a friend. But then Jade turned around and did this to her. Jade obviously doesn’t feel like they’re friends. Or she doesn’t care.  
Despite that, Robbie gently claims: “Jade’s a good friend.”  
“Because she’s always such a sweetheart,” Tori spits sarcastically.  
“She isn’t,” Robbie says without hesitation. “I’m scared of her half the time. But... She is my friend. I’m her friend. And that’s actually a great thing to be.”  
He stares at his own hands in his lap. Rex is sitting to his other side, motion- and commentless.  
“Why?” Tori asks confused.  
Robbie shrugs without looking at her. “Because... Well... When you’re friends with her, she’ll... always help you in her way. I don’t know. I don’t think I would be the person I am today without her. The same goes for Beck, Cat and Andre.”  
Tori can’t believe it. Is Robbie serious?  
Yeah, they probably wouldn’t be the same. They would be a lot happier without her around.  
“She’s mean,” Tori points out the obvious. How can Robbie claim Jade helps her friends in any way? Even if Tori isn’t her friend... She also sees how she treats her ‘real friends’, how she treated even Beck when he was her boyfriend.  
“She isn’t all the time,” Robbie says though. “Not when you’re friends with her.” He shrugs again. “And whenever she does say something positive about you, you at least know she means it.”  
Yeah, great. But she never says anything positive about Tori. And honestly? Tori has also barely ever heard her say anything positive about someone else. Definitely not about Robbie. Just when Beck and Jade broke up, Jade said she only tolerated Robbie, which Tori wouldn’t count as positive.  
That’s why she looks at him with utmost confusion. He glances to her before he looks back onto his hands and he admits quietly: “I think she was the first person to ever dismiss Rex but... not me. I don’t know. She accepts me.”  
Is that so? Was Jade the first person to hate on Rex but not Robbie? They are all unnerved by Rex at times and show it. Well, sometimes they are also annoyed with Robbie, especially if Rex is annoying. Because Robbie might act as if he wasn’t Rex, but he is. Whatever Rex says, he says.  
But Tori won’t discuss that now. She never discussed that with Robbie and knows she never will. There’s a reason he has Rex and she won’t probe.  
“Well, she doesn’t accept me,” she says instead. Because she obviously doesn’t.  
Only at that statement Robbie finally looks her in the eye again, sadly. “I guess she doesn’t. I’m sorry.”

Tori just wishes Jade would go away. She wishes she has never been there.  
She can’t believe Robbie that Jade did any good to anyone. And even if she did, she also did a lot of bad to her ‘friends’, Tori’s sure. She sees how she treats them all the time after all.  
She needs a long time to fall asleep that night, filled with anger about Jade.

The next morning is kind of a whirl and goes by without Tori really noticing what’s going on. She’s talking to her family but barely knows what she’s saying. She hears her parents wishing her a great first day at her new school, she talks to Trina on the car ride, what to look out for at Hollywood Arts but... It’s as if she’s still sleeping and not actually deciding or doing anything herself.  
At school, she’s overwhelmed as if she’s in these halls for the first time, and Trina claims that it’s just a normal high school, though it’s not, no matter if you have your first day there or your thousands.  
And then Trina leaves her alone. And she knows her way but somehow, she doesn’t and she promptly stops the redhead passing her by: “Hey, uhm… Can you tell me…?”  
It’s Cat who turns around and looks all excited as she recognizes her. But not her usual excited. It looks a bit… subdued.  
Tori’s having a déjà vu as Cat says: “Oh my god. You’re Tori, right?” But it’s a quieter déjà vu. Cat isn’t as… loud and excited as she… has been.  
“Uhu,” she still makes and appreciates Cat recognizing her.  
Cat smiles and tells her honestly: “You were awesome in the Big Showcase.”  
“Aw, thanks,” Tori responds and Cat looks at her for another moment, as if waiting for Tori to say more, before she turns around and walks away.  
Wait. Isn’t she supposed to introduce herself to Tori? Tori feels like that’s how it is supposed to go. That’s why she didn’t say any more. It confuses her so much that she doesn’t stop Cat though she still wants to know where she has to go herself.  
Tori blinks a few times, trying to orientate herself, before she notices Robbie about to walk by.  
“Hey, uhm,” she also starts with him and he stops and looks at her like a deer caught in headlights.  
“What up?” Rex asks.  
Tori asks for Sikowitz’s classroom and Rex answers her as she experiences another déjà vu. She’s sure Robbie said something too in her… memory or whatever it is, but this is otherwise like it’s supposed to. Rex telling her where to go.  
She thanks him and as she walks away he also calls her cupcake and ugh, how she dislikes him sometimes. Rex, not Robbie.  
In Sikowitz’s classroom Tori still needs to orientate herself. Something is going on but she can’t get a grab on to it somehow.  
And then she suddenly walks into Beck as she turns around and he spills his coffee all over himself. Of course she hurriedly tries to rub his shirt dry, rub the coffee off.  
Beck says that she might be making it worse, but he sounds more amused than anything else.  
She looks up into his eyes and they just look at each other for a moment as time stands still.  
There’s something about Beck. It’s not just his good looks. It’s his eyes too. There’s something about him that soothes Tori.  
And the thing is: their moment doesn’t pass. They don’t get interrupted, which is just wrong though. They have to get interrupted, right?  
Tori lets go of Beck and takes a step back as she looks past him to the door.  
“Where’s Jade?” she asks confused. Jade’s the one who should walk in and interrupt them, getting all jealous, maybe rightfully so.  
Beck looks at her bemused. “Who?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome back to the second chapter!  
> So I guess, I will update once a week as I won't manage more - though I'm so positively overwhelmed by all the feedback! (Here and elsewhere.)  
> Enjoy the next chapter!

Sikowitz’s class goes great.  
There isn’t anyone dumping coffee over her head or trying to humiliate her in any other way.  
It’s only weird that Cat doesn’t call their friends on stage when she’s asked to lead an improve scene but chooses some other classmates.  
Andre chooses Beck, two other guys, and then, with a smile, Tori too and they do a fun little scene together.  
After acting, it’s English for Andre and Tori and on the way Andre asks her: “So, did you like your first class?”  
“Very much so,” Tori says with a big grin. She did. It went great. Also because she assumedly had her first day here, never having acted before, but then did so well. Well, because she knows everyone and the lessons already. “I can’t wait for everything else.”  
She doesn’t totally know what’s going on, but she knows she’ll succeed in this… universe or whatever. In this timeline. Jade isn’t in her way here to put her down – and she’s been everywhere already, so it’ll be so easy to succeed.  
Andre looks at her amused: “You turned quickly, considering you weren’t even sure you wanted to go here.”  
That’s of course true. When Tori first started, in her actual reality, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to go to Hollywood Arts – because she wasn’t sure if she would belong. But she knows by now that she does belong.  
“I feel like I fit right in,” she says, beaming. How can’t she? She knows how well she will do at this school – now even more so with Jade not being around. Wow, and how quick will she able to pass the Bird Scene?  
She’ll be able to do Moonlight Magic! It’s a short play of Andre’s for which she knows he only needs the main role. It’s due to be performed in roughly three weeks. And in her actual start at this school she needed too long to pass the Bird Scene – Andre had to cast someone else. She could do the Bird Scene the day after tomorrow already in theory and then do Moonlight Magic.  
A play she officially doesn’t know about yet, in this world, in this universe. But Andre suggested it on her first day here in her own reality. She’ll easily be able to push him into it here too.  
“I can’t wait to try acting a bit more,” she says.  
And the last time she only shortly referred to being curious of acting and a bit scared of it and Andre immediately told her she should audition for his play.  
But he doesn’t say anything now, just smiles at her.  
She prompts: “Are there any play coming up?”  
Andre nods: “There are always plays coming up. You could audition for Uptown, Downtown. That’s coming up soon and I wanna be part of it.”  
Yes, of course, Uptown, Downtown is also coming up soon but… “Are you working on music for something?”  
“Nothing serious,” Andre says with a shrug. “It’s not as good as I’d like.”  
Seriously? Tori barely ever heard Andre doubtful about his music. Yes, he often thought he could do even better but all in all he knew he was great and made awesome music. What is this then though?  
“You’re an awesome musician!”  
Andre grins in the same way Tori has seen so often before whe someone complimented his music. “Thanks!”

They are all in the same Spanish class as they usually are. Jade’s the only one in another class – or now in no class at all.  
Tori happily agrees when Andre asks her to come to lunch with them. She absolutely wants to. And this time there won’t be a grumpy Jade, throwing her hateful looks while she’s still finding her way around school and these new people that’ll grow to become her friends.  
The thing is that Andre might wait up for her and Beck actually does too, but when she’s ready they want to leave, though Robbie has only started packing his back up again (which takes some time as he isn’t even putting Rex down for that at the moment for some reason) and Cat dreamily dawdles too.  
“You also coming?” Tori therefore checks confused with the two of them, stopping Andre and Beck with that question who turn to her in surprise.  
Robbie looks shocked to be asked but Rex promptly says: “I hope you didn’t mean to invite Robbie.”  
Gosh, Rex can be such an ass!  
Beck’s the one to say with a shrug: “Well, you know you can totally come along, Robbie.”  
Robbie looks as if he doesn’t believe a word Beck’s saying. He shares an uncertain look with Rex, biting his lip, before he says quietly: “I’d like to.”  
Tori turns to Cat: “Are you coming too?”  
She also stopped before but looked at her almost curiously. Apparently, she also wasn’t sure if she was invited.  
Now she smiles brightly though. “Sure!”

It’s weird. Everyone feels different. They almost feel… less self-assured, which is ridiculous. This definitely can’t be because of Jade, as Jade is the one to put people down, right?  
But Cat is so quiet for… well, for Cat. Yes, she talks and giggles but not as carefree. And throughout the next two weeks Tori definitely notices people every now and then snicker when she says something in class that’s a bit out there. It’s not bullying, but… it’s mean. Tori has never witnessed behaviour like this at Hollywood Arts before. Well, maybe about Robbie or rather Rex – or Sinjin… But it seems to her as if nobody is actually taking Cat seriously. It doesn’t matter what she contributes in class… nobody listens and recognizes it, even if it’s smart.  
Robbie meanwhile barely talks while Rex talks a whole lot more and is even more disgusting and mean than Tori ever remembered him to be. He clearly needs to be kicked down a notch.  
Andre is… muted, mainly in his whole enthusiasm about music. He still loves it but… some of the passion seems to be missing.  
But no, not everyone feels different. Beck doesn’t. Beck’s just like he always has been, so nice and easy to talk to with that smile that yes, Tori might be into.

Tori never would’ve touched Beck in her actual world, not when he had a girlfriend and she also tried to be friends with said girlfriend. But Jade is nowhere around here, so why shouldn’t Tori flirt with Beck?  
And not even two weeks in – with the time passing surprisingly fast, especially the evenings and school lessons were as if there weren’t really happening and she mainly lived for time with her friends – and Beck casually drops by at her locker and when she asks him what’s up, he says: “Okay, you can totally say no, just so you know. I’d still like to become friends. But do you wanna go on a date with me?”  
She can’t help but grin widely. “Yes, sure.”

Everything will be great. She doesn’t know how she got here but who cares? She’s doing good in her classes, as far as she can tell, passed the Bird Scene on her first try, easily, which impressed everyone, and now she’ll go on a date with Beck and doesn’t have to worry about anything.  
Yes, her friends are weird. And they aren’t even friends, like not only not to her yet but also among each other. Andre and Beck are definitely friends and it appears as if they casually have talked to Robbie before but they usually don’t hang out with Robbie. They apparently have never actually spoken to Cat before but she and Robbie seem to be on friendly terms. But whenever Tori didn’t invite the two of them to sit together with her, Beck and Andre during lunch, they haven’t. Robbie usually eats lunch alone then or rather with Rex. Cat has joined him once and otherwise just randomly sits down with people. Nobody seems to be bothered by that but Tori also doesn’t have the impression as if Cat is actually friends with anyone.  
It bothers her. Because neither their sudden differences in personality nor their relationship to each other can be because of Jade, right? Jade isn’t the person who makes them friends. She barely tolerates all of them, so how could she?  
Yet, it’s only her who’s missing and everything else seems to be like it always has been…

Beck invites her to a restaurant. Not a super fancy one but also not some fast food place.  
After they did a bit of small talk and have gotten their food, Beck says: “So, tell me about yourself.”  
And the look he gives her… she could melt. He has always been so attentive but as he had a girlfriend, Tori never got too close, always tried to see Beck only in a friendly way. But he’s such a good and kind person.  
Obviously, she tells him everything she can think of. She wants him to know everything, like he already does in her actual reality.  
He listens. At first. But the longer she talks, the more she gets the feeling that he looses interest. He still laughs at her jokes, but something in his eyes… The thing is, she doesn’t think she would notice if she would’ve just met him. But she already knows him so well, is such good friends with him, that she sees the boredom in his eyes.  
And then he actually starts looking around, casually and – she can’t believe it – smiles at a girl their age at the table next to them, eating with her family. She smiles back before she turns back to her mother, almost with a blush.  
Tori feels uncomfortable. She is on a date with Beck, right? And yeah, she has seen him do this before. Smile at girls like this. But she’s sure he never did while on a date with Jade; she would’ve outright killed him, right?  
Well, and she must have just talked too much about herself. She didn’t ask about him once. She must seem full of herself. Obviously, she hasn’t asked about him yet, because she already knows so much. But…  
“But enough about me,” she says with a smile. “You tell me about yourself.”  
Beck only shrugs. As if he wasn’t bored because she only talked about herself and barely let him get a word in. “I don’t have any siblings.” She talked about Trina too. “Just living with my parents, both of whom are working and… that’s it.”  
Wait. He makes it sounds as if… “Are you living in your parents’ house?”  
Beck raises an eyebrow. “Where else should I live? Where are you living?” His interest seems to be sparked again.  
But it immediately dies down again, when she says: “No, it’s just…” She doesn’t think she can say that he lives in his father’s RV in her reality, can she? So she finished lamely: “You seem to be that kind of person who moves into an RV or something.”  
“Funny you should say that,” Beck says and at least looks slightly intrigued. “My dad does have an RV and I did think about moving in there because my parents can be pretty encroaching. But… What’s the point?”  
What’s the point? “Not having to live by their rules anymore?” she suggests the very thing that Beck once told her.  
But this Beck just shrugs.  
Well, and he’s different too, after all. He’s just so… flat. He seems uninterested and even uncaring.  
What’s wrong with all her friends?


	3. Chapter 3

It’s not just weird, it’s wrong. It’s all wrong.  
She doesn’t get what’s going on. How can they all be so different? Just because Jade isn’t around?  
She tries to get them back to normal. She talks Robbie up and Rex down, encourages Andre constantly about his music, keeps Cat close and Beck at least somewhat interested.  
She doesn’t go on another date with Beck but tries to get all of her friends together all the time and they totally do meet up but it’s so weird. They just aren’t friends among each other and don’t seem to feel comfortable around each other like they should.  
Their shared lunches, that Tori insists on now, keep being awkward, starting with Robbie not even putting Rex down for eating. Tori has barely ever witnessed that. But Robbie seems so damn dependent on him in this reality. Like… He has always been dependent on him but not like this.  
Tori still wonders how it can be like this and how she can get them to change into the people she knows when Cat starts babbling, like she does, one lunch three weeks down the road: “When my family and I were in Europe, we once sat at a table with another family and it was just as awkward as our lunches and my brother realized how nervous it made me and began screaming like crazy. Though maybe he also just hurt because he poked himself with a fork before.”  
Tori blinks. She was relieved at first, hearing Cat talk like usual, but then she heard her words and… okay, Cat is also experiencing these lunches as awkward. How can’t she? They all must feel that way. And Tori never had an awkward lunch with them before. Well, because the only reason they all sit together now, seems to be Tori and not them genuinely liking each other.  
But Jade didn’t make them like each other, right? How could she have? She doesn’t even like them most of the days.  
Tori can even hear Jade now, not allowing Cat to finish her story but interrupting her before and telling her to shut up. Though sometimes, Jade is in the mood for Cat’s stories and if she would’ve heard all of this one, she definitely would’ve asked interested why Cat’s brother poked himself with a fork.  
But Jade isn’t here and the others are only confused by Cat’s story, not intrigued. Well, Beck’s face doesn’t show anything.  
Andre’s the one to speak next, sceptically: “Your brother… he does exist, right?”  
Cat’s offended by that question. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she calls out as she jumps up to leave.  
Tori quickly grabs her by her arm.  
“Cat, please stay,” she says because he doesn’t want her to leave. She wants all of them together and to finally be friends again.  
Cat looks at her for a moment, before she sits back down, with somewhat of a dark look.  
Tori worries a bit about her, but also doesn’t want to hear any more about her weird brother and instead decides to change the topic to something lighter: “How were your classes?”  
Robbie seems relieved to stop the awkwardness but also to stop talking about Cat’s brother. He quickly lets Rex answer: “Robbie got back a test with a bad grade.”  
“Because you kept me from studying,” Robbie defends himself against Rex.  
Tori smiles slightly. Yes, this is also as usual. Though Rex then telling Robbie that he’s just dumb is a bit harsh. And weirdly that makes Tori have Jade’s voice in her ear again, verbally abusing Robbie’s teacher for one reason or another. Jade is always ready to insult other people, also teachers. She barely likes any of them, possibly only Sikowitz.  
But weirdly, if Jade would do that, Tori realizes, it would lessen Rex’ claim that Robbie’s just dumb.  
It’s just a moment that Tori stops but then she sees Robbie, wanting to shoot back at Rex and she can see it turning into somewhat of a fight between them or Rex just getting really cruel with his words, so she quickly turns to Andre: “How was you music class?”  
“Great!” Andre says with a grin. “We go a new assignment: Each of us is writing a short ballad.”  
Tori has to smile too. “Awesome. Are you excited?”  
“Yeah,” Andre says with a nod and he sounds like is. He is excited. He loves music. Though the enthusiam is again a bit muted. He usually would’ve directly talked about his idea for it, because obviously he would already have ideas, as soon as the teacher would’ve set the assignment.  
Though Tori can also hear Jade stop Andre before saying more, rolling her eyes at him and saying that he’ll do a love ballad anyway and how boring he is – and then challenging him to write a ballad about something else.  
Now, it’s Cat to speak again, quietly: “I like your music.”  
Andre beams at her, not having counted on a compliment. “Thanks! I really enjoy your singing.”  
Cat also smiles happily but doesn’t say anything more.  
Well, but this is progress, right?  
“You’re both awesome,” Tori says. “Maybe you could do a song together.” They would spend some more time together that way, and learn to like each other better.  
“Sure,” Andre agrees and Cat gets a sudden idea and says all excited: “It could be about cats!”  
“Well, okay,” Andre says with a shrug and Tori can honestly not wait to hear it.  
She isn’t the only one. She can even see Beck smile about the exchange, when the bell rings for end of break. And only then she notices that Beck may never talk too much, but that he actually said nothing at all during this lunch.

She doesn’t know what to do. In between she does think she can make it better, can turn the group into what they are in her reality, but… at other times she just feels strange around these… strangers.  
She even goes to Jade’s house, because maybe she does exist in this reality and just doesn’t go to Hollywood Arts. But another family lives in the apartment that Tori knows to be Jade’s, even if she never has been invited there.  
She wants to get back. She wants Jade back and everything that comes with it. She wants her friends back to normal.  
She knows that her friends would help her if they were like normal. She guesses Beck would’ve noticed something wrong with her and would’ve asked her about it. Heck, the others would’ve noticed too if there wasn’t too much else going on in their lives at that moment.  
But what’s keeping her from telling them? They’ll still help her, right? Because they might be different, but at their core they’re obviously the same.  
She invites all of them over to her house when her parents are at work and Trina is out with friends herself.  
When she has them all sitting together on she couches, she draws up a kitchen chair to sit in front of them.  
She told them they would watch a movie and now she’s sitting in front of the TV, so obviously they all look at her confused.  
“I have to tell you guys something really weird and I want you to believe me,” she starts and becomes nervous as if she had to confess that she did something bad, though she didn’t. Well, except wish one of her friends away. “I know it’s strange.”  
Beck looks amused. “That’s an intro!”  
It is but it will also so damn unbelieving for them. But she won’t prolong telling them any longer. She’s desperate for their help to get back to… well, to them, but their actual thems, the real ones, her friends.  
“I’m from another reality,” she therefore gets it over with quickly. “From one in which we’re all friends.”  
For a moment it’s silent, before Cat tilts her head to the side and innocently says, as if that was the point: “I’d like to be friends.”  
Rex snorts. “Who would be friends with Robbie?”  
Tori never thought about it much before, about the fact that Rex was Robbie really. It disgusts her now. He’s just so vicious and cruel to Robbie. And not like he never has been in her reality but… not this extreme.  
“Shut up, Rex!” she tells him harshly. “I don’t want to hear another word from you!”  
Robbie makes Rex drop his mouth open but apparently he just wants to express shock with that and keeps silent for now.  
She continues as nobody else is saying anything: “I mean it: I’ve already started at Hollywood Arts in another reality and everything is wrong here and I want to go back.”  
For another moment, nobody is saying anything. Andre tries to exchange a glance with Beck but Beck doesn’t look back. At once, he doesn’t seem to be bored but instead looks at Tori with great interest.  
Finally, Andre says: “Are you pulling our legs?”  
“No, I swear,” Tori says insistently.  
Cat suddenly beams, obviously remembering something: “I read a story once about an alternative universe and Luke went to high school in it and…” She giggles and has trouble going on: “He fell in love with a girl and she turned out to be his sister.” She giggles even harder.  
Wait. Is she talking about some Star Wars fanfiction or something?  
Well, in any case: Tori doesn’t have the time or the nerve for this right now. “Cat, please, can you concentrate?”  
Cat immediately stops giggling and bites her lip as if Tori harshly called her out, which she didn’t. Tori assures her: “I love you, but we have a problem at hand.”  
Now, Rex speaks up again: “Isn’t it just you who has a problem?”  
Maybe it is. But they will help her anyway, won’t they?  
She doesn’t know what to say. As she looks at them, she’s sure they still don’t even believe her. Who can blame them? She wouldn’t.  
But Beck’s totally interested now, well, because it’s like some story, she guesses: “So, what’s this other reality? What’s different there?”  
“You guys are all friends,” she repeats and then adds: “And Jade exists. Jade and you guys are friends. I joined Hollywood Arts like here and also became part of your group.”  
“And how did you find yourself here?” Beck asks, humoring her.  
How does she know? Though, yes, she obviously gets the gits of it. “Jade did something which made me really hate her and… I went to bed and woke up here.”  
“You wished her away?” Robbie asks softly and unbelieving and… shocked, though he doesn’t even know who Jade is.  
Rex promptly shoots: “How did it work for you and not for me when I wish Robbie away?”  
Tori outright glares at Rex at that and he squeaks and slaps his hand in front of his mouth. Tori’s eyes wander to Robbie who looks at her nervously. So different than she knows him. Gosh.  
“Please,” she says, looking at him for another moment, then at the others again too. “Tell me how to get back.”  
Andre suggests with a shrug: “Go to bed.”  
Great. As if she hasn’t done that several times in the weeks she has already been here. Though she doesn’t really remember it too much, but well…  
And now, Cat makes an actual suggestion: “You need to really regret that you wished her away.”  
“I do regret it,” Tori assures them. Of course she regrets it. She wants to go back home and hates it here more and more.  
Cat beams. “Are you back then?”  
“No,” Tori says irritated.  
Robbie carefully raises his voice again: “Maybe you should talk to someone about this.”  
He means a doctor. She quickly says: “I am. With you guys. Please, I’m not crazy!”  
But the looks in Andre’s and Robbie’s faces tell her that they believe otherwise.  
She turns to Beck again and tries to get him back into the conversation with the one thing he does seem to care about: writing, thinking of stories, art. “If this was a story, how would you make me be able to get back?”  
Beck shrugs. “I guess the same way Cat said. Making you regret it.”  
Tori looks Beck in the eyes and wonders how he could’ve ever gone for the boring idea. He wasn’t boring. How can he be here?  
“No,” she therefore says. “Tell me how you would write this story if it could go any way. Like, no matter how weird or dark or whatever.”  
Beck hesitates, then responds: “I would make you regret it, and the audience would think that that would be it, that you would wake up back in your reality but you would still be where you are right now. I’m not sure I would enable you to get back.” He looks apologetic like he never does, even with his cruelest story ideas and even if he got inspired by something that happened to one of his friends.  
“Great, thanks,” she can’t help but say and in the same moment she almost sees Jade next to him, smirking and saying that he should make it worse. He should let her wake up and first think she’s back but that she would notice over time that she got into an even worse universe somehow. She can almost see Beck smirk back, not this Beck. Jade’s Beck. She can almost see them kissing.  
Beck shrugs, not bothered by her disregarding answer, even if he seems to feel somewhat unsure about his idea about not ending it so positively. “Let me sleep it over.”  
“I’ll google if someone knows more,” Robbie says and he’s still thinking about hallucinations and doctors, but… he does want to help her too which already means a great deal to her.  
“Good idea!” Andre says and it seems like he wants to do the same.  
And even Cat offers something possibly a bit helpful: “I’ll ask my brother what he thinks.” And yes, her brother is weird, but just like her, he’s sometimes surprisingly insightful. As she thinks about it, with alternative universes existing, she somehow can even see him slipping in and out of other universes all the time. … Okay, maybe she’s going crazy after all.  
Maybe, all of this is one single fever dream or something. Or what if Jade truly never existed and she just thinks she has lived through all these weeks before with Jade there?  
But no. She looks at her friends and knows that that’s not true. She knows these people and she knows them differently than they are right now. Because she does come out of another reality where they are different.  
But at their core, they are the same people: They’ll help her. Of course they will.  
“Thank you, guys! Thank you so much!”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to the last chapter of this little story!  
> I'm so sorry that it's late. It has been extremely hot over the last few days where I live and I just... sat still during the weekend, my brain not cool enough to finish this story up.  
> But it's done now and I hope you guys like the ending!  
> Thank you to everyone for giving kudos and reading this story!

They meet up again in Tori’s home the next day. Her parents and Trina all leave them the living room. Her parents are happy she made friends so quickly. If they only knew. Though honestly: Tori also made these friends quite quickly the first time around.  
Tori also feels like she barely talked to her parents during these last few weeks, since she has been here. Though yes, obviously she talked to them all the time at home, but it’s all a blur.  
Tori knows she should thank her friends for coming back at all and not considering her so crazy that they ran away. Though her friends are crazy too and possibly they think it fun for her to be that way.  
In any case: They sit around the kitchen table this time and Tori’s almost disappointed not seeing them pull out papers full of ideas.  
“Has anyone of you got an idea?” she asks carefully.  
Cat’s the first to answer: “My brother says you have to dance in the moonlight.”  
Tori blinks. Is she serious? Well, of course she is.  
Andre also looks at Cat a bit confused, only to then confess though: “That’s a better idea than I have. I’ve got nothing.”  
“See a doctor,” Rex calls. That seems to continue to be Robbie’s idea – as he already suggested that the day before, he obviously doesn’t dare to say again but instead makes Rex say it.  
Tori expectedly looks at Beck who must have a better suggestion. He’s a storyteller after all, and this is like a story.  
Beck looks back silently for a moment before saying: “I actually started writing a story as I assumed I could get ideas for your supposed dilemma.” He still doesn’t believe that it happened at all, she’s sure. Neither must the others, hence Robbie’s suggestion. “But I noticed that you never told us, what that girl did to you, what’s wrong with being here and why you want to go back.”  
Andre seems surprised at that; he hasn’t thought about it before obviously. “Yeah, why do you want to get back? We can become friends here too.”  
“I’d like that,” Cat repeats quietly her sentiment from the day before.  
But that’s just so wrong. “No,” Tori’s quick to say. “All of you are different here! Jade changed you!”  
Tori doesn’t know exactly how. She’s still sure that it’s not Jade exactly who made all of them friends. She guesses, if any one of the others wouldn’t be around, the group also wouldn’t exist. Because everybody plays their role in it.  
She’s also certain that the missing group dynamic changed every one of them, not just Jade missing.  
But Jade also changed them, didn’t she?  
She looks at Cat who’s so quiet, compared to her actual self. She thinks about how nobody at school seems to take her serious, how she’s all over the place, how she doesn’t have real friends here.  
And she remembers how she got told by some classmates over time that Jade hit someone when she barely started at Hollywood Arts. She asked Andre about it and Andre confirmed, explaining to Tori that that was one of the reasons he was scared of Jade – though he had heard back in time that it had been because that other person made fun of Cat ‘or something’.  
Is that it? Was Jade the only one ready to defend her? Is that how Cat and Jade became friends or were they friends before and that was why Jade defended her?  
Tori thinks of all the times Jade has roughly told Cat the truth about things, even hurtful ones. But then also about how she so often has a coloring book for Cat in her bag or something to distract or soothe her. Tori thinks about how Jade actually takes care of Cat at times. Tori never realized it before.  
Does maybe even the rough truth by Jade help Cat sometimes? Does it work like an anchor for Cat to be told the truth like that, instead of having all those other people snicker behind her back?  
Tori needs to let her know, needs to let her know how loved she is in her reality.  
“Cat, she’s your best friend! She always tells you the truth. She may be a hard ass but… she’s almost soft with you when you need it.”  
Cat tilts her head and looks at her curiously.  
As do the others. Tori lets her eyes wander further to Robbie, who has outright told her what Jade did for him. How she was the person to finally call Rex out without hurting him. And when Tori thinks about it, she knows she has seen it herself a thousand times. How Jade even ripped an arm off of Rex when he said something terrible, but never insulted Robbie because of it – though they of course all know that it’s Robbie saying those things. But they also know there is a reason Rex exists. Is it possible that Jade found the right way to deal with it, hating on Rex, this terrible part of Robbie that also insults him constantly, but accepting Robbie around?  
“Jade hates Rex but she likes you enough to allow him around,” Tori tells Robbie but then also remembers Jade sometimes laughing with Rex – when Rex makes comments which might be dark but not against Robbie, just something that Robbie might also be amused by but doesn’t dare to say out loud because he doesn’t want to be a bad person. Well… “In some ways you have the same humor actually.”  
She looks further to Andre who is so passionate in her reality but is somehow muted here. Well, Jade’s shamelessly passionate about acting. Have they pushed each other in their passions? They also do enjoy so many of the same things, of course Andre must have felt inspired by Jade’s passion. And she loves good art. She loves Beck’s acting and writing and she loves Cat’s singing and she loves Andre’s music. She has never made a bad comment about any of those things but instead has been supportive. Heck, she also has been supportive of Robbie’s music – and yes, he’s a good musician too. She also always had called Andre the best musician at their school. And when she says something positive, you know she means it.  
“I know you are scared of Jade but at the same time, you know she always has your back,” Tori says to Andre, because that’s just it, isn’t it? That’s how Jade is friends with people, with these people. That’s what Robbie tried to explain. “She loves your music, she’s always talking you up. And because she’s absolutely honest, even or especially when she can be mean about it, you know how awesome your music truly must be. And she has so much passion for acting and you for music that you inspire each other.”  
And next sits Beck and it seems more as if he humors her again: “So what did she change about me?” He doesn’t think she changed anything.  
While the other three look intrigued, Beck doesn’t buy it.  
Because he doesn’t know. He doesn’t even know who Jade is. Tori almost shudders at the realization that Beck only called Jade ‘that girl’ a few minutes ago, that he didn’t even bother to remember her name for a day. Because he doesn’t know yet.  
“She’s your girlfriend.”  
Beck hasn’t moved before but Tori still feels as if she’s seeing him stop.  
She thinks about all the silent smirks she has seen him and Jade exchange over time. About his comments while watching Jade and her laughing at them. She thinks about him playing with Jade’s hands, him with his arm around her. She thinks about them bickering and fighting and how he obviously and deeply cares in those moments. How he always cares when it’s about Jade. How she has never seen him bored. How Jade has always been around.  
“I never knew you bored or unempathetic. You don’t seem to care about anything now. In my reality, you care and are so… You genuinely enjoy life.”  
And that next to Jade who doesn’t seem to enjoy life. But as Tori talks, she thinks that maybe she’s wrong. Jade does enjoy life, just in her own way. She likes darkness, she likes seeing others in distress. She still loves life, right? She follows her passions, and persues her hobbies. And Beck is right there with her.  
Is she keeping him at it? Is she keeping him on the move? Is he just trying to keep up with her and is that why he’s never bored in her reality?  
Beck looks at her as if he doesn’t believe a word she’s saying. As if even those few words Tori said sound too good to be true for him.  
Well, and it is. “She isn’t you girlfriend at the moment. You guys actually broke up.”  
Finally, Beck finds his voice again: “Why?”  
“You fight a lot. And it seems like it got to be too much. It’s been a while but I don’t think you are over her.”  
How can he be when she apparently changed so much for him, evidenced by the Beck sitting in front of her.  
“What about her?” Beck asks.  
Tori thinks about it. About Jade since the break-up. How she has drawn back since. And then came back into the group of friends. Well, because these are her friends, even if she couldn’t stand Beck at that time.  
But now that Tori thinks about it she has seen Jade watch Beck with other girls and shown so much damn restraint. Not because she doesn’t like Beck anymore. But because they were broken up and she knew she had no right to be jealous anymore. Exactly because she still did love Beck and therefore wanting him to be happy and move on, if they didn’t work.  
Could that be true?  
“I think she isn’t over you too. You love each other.”  
For a moment it’s silent and Tori looks around, at all of them, as she finally understands what Robbie meant when he said that Jade wasn’t mean when you were friends with her and that she would always help in her own way. That’s what she does, isn’t it? Hasn’t Tori seen her help every single one of them, support them and help them? It’s just always layered in sarcasm and dark remarks and… well, and then Jade truly is mean to everyone else, like to Tori. Because she doesn’t see her as her friend. But that doesn’t change anything about the fact that she is a good friend to these four, yes, even to Beck and even after their break-up.  
And suddenly, there’s Beck: “You need to get us back together.”  
Tori looks to him again, their eyes lock, his gaze is intense.  
“I will, I promise,” she says though she has no idea how she can.  
Not to mention that she needs to get back first. Which Beck obviously also notices, suddenly with much more rigor: “We need to get you back.” Even here, without existing, Jade makes Beck care.

They talk and plan for hours. They research in the internet, talk plot devices, suggest even the most ridiculous ideas. They grow more tired by the minute, and finally, Tori falls asleep on the couch while the others are talking around her, wondering aloud what Jade might be like. Tori wants to tell them that Jade is much darker and meaner than they make her out to be but that they still love her and she loves them, but before she can, she drifts off to sleep.

She wakes up to her mother cleaning up around her.  
“Hi, Tori,” her mother says with a smile as she notices her awake.  
Tori grunts in response before she yawns widely.  
Her mother shortly touches her, lovingly, before she checks: “How did you end up on the couch?”  
Tori responds while sitting up, feeling groggy after having slept on the couch for however long: “I just fell asleep while my friends were still here, I guess. They must’ve left when they noticed me asleep.”  
Her mother stops and pulls her eyebrows together. “They were here in the middle of the night?”  
“No,” Tori says, getting confused. “You know that they came by earlier. You gave us the living room to talk in peace.”  
And nobody came into the living room for hours and hours before Tori then fell asleep. How can her mother be so weird about it?  
Her mother looks back just as confused but then her face lights up a bit all knowingly and she says: “Are you trying to suppress what happened? It’s okay, honey. You’ll get another shot.”  
Does her mother also knows about the Jade issue or what is she supposed to surpress? And what’s this business with getting another shot? Another shot a life? Like… What?  
The door bell rings and her mother doesn’t directly react but looks at Tori for another moment, before she says: “I’ll make you tea and you stay on the couch.”  
Only then, she walks to the door and Andre, Beck and Robbie file in.  
They greet Tori’s mother and she greets back before she asks: “Are you here to cheer her up?” When they nod, she adds: “She needs it. I’ll leave you alone.” That’s what she does.  
“How are you?” Andre asks as they all walk closer to Tori.  
“How am I supposed to feel?” Tori asks back with a sigh. She thinks she’s explained how she feels about the situation well enough the day before.  
Beck briefly claps his hand on her arm while he sits down next to her. “We know you must be devestated but come on, it’s not the end of the world.”  
And that just doesn’t make sense. Tori feels like what Beck says doesn’t fit with the situation. Except… What if…?  
A rush of excitement goes trough Tori.  
“What date is it?” she asks, her heart pounding fast inside her. There’s only one possible reasons for all the things her mother and now her friends said, right?  
There is. Andre says the date and it’s the day of the Platinum Music Awards.  
“No!” Tori calls out, jumping up from the couch. “Am I…? Am I back? Is Jade at the award show right now?”  
“She is,” Robbie says, apologetic. While Beck has sat on the couch next to Tori and Andre has stopped, standing, close-by, Robbie walked straight through to Tori’s laptop that’s lying around in the kitchen. He turned it on and started her video call app. “Cat is with her. Cat wants to check in on you too though.”  
Tori has barely heard anything Robbie said. “I can’t believe it! Guys!”  
She falls into Beck’s arm, then Andre’s, then Robbie’s and back into Andre’s, feeling so damn elated.  
Her friends stay still as she does and only when she hugs Andre again, does he awkwardly pat her on the back, saying: “There, there.” He uses a comforting tone, as if Tori was crying.  
“No,” she therefore calls out, beaming at all three of them, after breaking apart from Andre again. “I’m so happy I’m back! You wouldn’t believe what happened.”  
And how can she ever explain?  
Robbie has turned back to the laptop after having been hugged and video called Cat who now picks up.  
“Hi!” she says and Tori promptly runs up to the laptop, searching on the screen: “Cat! Is Jade with you?”  
“She is,” Cat responds, almost nervously. “But don’t worry, you don’t have to see her.”  
“No, I want to,” Tori immediately says. She so does! She needs to see Jade.  
Beck calmly responds with everyone else looking at her almost terrified, maybe because they can’t read her mood at all: “We understand that you want to say bad things to her but maybe this it not the tme.”  
“No, you don’t get it,” Tori’s quick to say. “You wouldn’t… I… I was in a different reality.”  
For a moment it’s silent, then Rex dryly says: “Okay, now you snapped.”  
“I didn’t. Listen!” Tori says and then explains the whole thing. How she felt so bad the day before and woke up in a reality without Jade. How different they all were and how uncomfortable it made her.  
When she’s done, Andre looks worried at Robbie and Beck: “She did snap.”  
“I didn’t,” Tori defends herself.  
Robbie meanwhile softly asks: “You wished Jade away?” That thought seems to horrify him.  
“I’m sorry,” Tori responds earnestly. “I obviously realized what she means to you guys!”  
Cat’s also still listening over the video chat and now tells: “My brother was in an alternative reality once and he danced in the moonlight to come back.” Wait. What? “He didn’t like it there. Everyone there thought he was crazy.”  
Tori notices the boys sharing a glance. They also deem Cat’s brother crazy. Well… He sort of is.  
But Tori’s still hung up about the dancing in the moonlight. This proves it, right? That she didn’t just have a bad dream but that all of it really happened. Well, or she knows Cat and her brother so well by now that her unconsciousness knew Cat would say this.  
But Beck also says something that sounds so familiar to her: “You know, that trope with another reality to show someone how wrong they are is so damn old. I don’t get the appeal anymore. I would write it differently. I just wouldn’t give it a happy ending. They should rot in the reality they wished for so badly.”  
And how unashamed Beck says it, not hesitating. Well, because Jade loves the darkness and must have made Beck so open about it.  
Jade did change all of them, so much. And Tori loves the people they are now, so how can’t she also love Jade in a way?  
Of course, she sends them away, to be with Jade on her big day, though she might still be frustrated about this not being her own big day. The others should be with Jade because they are her friends.  
While Robbie and Andre are quick to leave, Beck stays, not wanting to leave her alone just now – and he tries to kiss her again.  
Tori has to push him away. She tells him she can’t do it because of Jade. Though it’s not just Jade. After all, it has just been yesterday that she told… the other Beck that Jade once had been his girlfriend and Beck had asked her to bring them back together. Not to mention that the idea of dating Beck was nice, maybe it would even be great here, with this Beck that has already been changed by Jade, but… she’s kind of over it after that date she had with him in the other reality. She’s also sure now that Beck isn’t over Jade and she won’t be his rebound.  
But she stays with the explanation that she can’t do it because of Jade before she sends him away, telling him he should support Jade too as they might not be a couple anymore but are still friends.

She stays behind alone and relieved. The relief easily washes away the frustration she still does feel for Jade taking her spot. At least, Jade exists here and their friends are back to normal.  
She still wonders how they all became friends. But she has realized that Jade truly is their friend, no matter how much she pretends or what kind of bad things she says. She always has their backs in the end. And she somehow made them so self-assured and honest. Because she’s self-assured and honest herself, Tori guesses.  
And of course, Tori wishes she could also be with Jade that way. That Jade would also boost her confidence instead of putting her down. Even in that Jade-way.  
And the thing is: Tori also likes Jade. Not when she treats her terribly, obviously, but generally, she enjoys her in their group of friends. She also finds some of Jade’s comments funny, loves her passion and also likes her honesty most of the time. She loves that Jade doesn’t take shit from anyone – because she herself also doesn’t want to and feels inspired by Jade to just say when something feels wrong.  
She wants to be her friend, if she’s being honest. But why is she still here then and not at the award show, supporting her? Even if Jade took that away from her… Well, if it wouldn’t have been Jade, it would’ve been someone else. It’s not like Jade actively robbed her of her job. She lost it and then Jade got it.  
She can go support her, can’t she?

The thing is, when she’s finally there, carefully approaching Jade (with feeling like hugging her after not having seen her for weeks and weeks in the other reality), Jade promptly tells her that she should be on stage.  
Tori barely understands while Jade already starts getting her ready for the performance.  
Wait. Is Jade actually… being her friend right now? Are they already friends? This isn’t something Jade would do for people she doesn’t like. Does she like Tori? Since when?  
Tori even wonders for a moment if Jade was in an alternative reality too, without Tori, and realized some things there too.  
In any case… Tori did realize a lot, among other things: “You’re a good friend.”  
“I’m not your friend,” Jade’s quick to answer though, roughly, and then, more quiet, with a gesture to the laptop close-by: “I saw you.”  
For a moment, Tori doesn’t know what she means, then she remembers the video call with Cat that noone ever ended, did they, and the almost kiss with Beck and how she pushed Beck away. Because of Jade.  
“Oh,” she makes.  
Well, and this is Jade saying thanks for not kissing Beck. For not going there. For not making it hard on Jade to stay in their group of friends with the two of them becoming a couple.  
So Jade isn’t her friend after all. But…  
She decides: “Well, you might not be mine but I am yours.”  
Jade only shortly looks at her at that before she tells her that she’ll make sure, her name gets introduced and that she herself will be in the audience.

Tori feels as if Jade’s behaviour towards her changes afterwards. Not in a big way. But it’s also not like she treats her friends that much better than everyone else on the surface. It’s the small things, the backhanded compliments, saying the actual right thing in the right situation and things like that she does for her friends. And Tori almost feels like she sometimes is on the receiving end of that too.  
She also definitely didn’t forget what she promised the other Beck: helping Beck and Jade get back together.  
She tries. She also talks to Jade about it – which actually makes Jade stop talking to her for the rest of the week, which is awful.  
She talks to Beck more about it. On their opposite date, on their way home, after Jade also found out and didn’t freak out, she talks Jade up for him but he’s unresponsive and tells her that Jade left and that that was that.

After a lot of thinking, Tori knows how to do it. Sometimes you need to pull people apart for them to draw back together. And if that wouldn’t be typical for Beck and Jade, to get back together when you try keeping them apart…  
She makes Beck go on a date with Meredith and it’s there that Jade sings a song for him and they get back together.  
After they try to sing another song together but just keep making out on stage and are ushered off stage by their teacher, Tori can see, Robbie, Cat and Andre all excitedly walking up to the couple that’s finally back together again.  
Tori also walks closer when she already hears Cat, as she claps her hands: “I’m so happy for you guys!”  
Robbie meanwhile turns to Rex: “I told you they would get back together eventually!”  
“I’m really happy for you too,” Andre says with a big grin before he explicitly turns to Jade: “And awesome song!”  
Jade smiles at that and Beck watches her, with an extremely soft smile himself, saying: “I liked it too.”  
Jade cocks an eyebrow in amusement. “Really? I wouldn’t have noticed.”  
Beck promptly pulls her into a kiss, as if he wants to make sure she does notice how much he loved the song – and how much he loves her.  
With the kiss lasting a tad longer than possibly appropriate right in their friends’ faces, Andre walks past them to one of the tables set up with new cups and bottles and starts pouring drinks, while asking: “How about a toast?”  
Jade and Beck break apart again and both take a cup before Jade looks around and it’s as if she’s noticing something – or someone – missing. Finally, she finds Tori with her eyes, who stopped a bit away from the rest of the group, and then makes a short gesture that clearly implies for Tori to join them.  
And Tori does, with the biggest grin in her face.


End file.
